Why is it that under Pope John Paul II
and Benedict XVI Roman Catholics heard no end of sermons about the evils of
contraception and abortion? And yet today we've heard hardly a pulpit peep
about Pope Francis' encyclical on climate change -- published fully nine months
ago. On the contrary, chanceries throughout the country (including my home
diocese of Lexington, Kentucky) have been scrambling to sweep Laudato Si' under the sanctuary carpet.

Could it be that Pope Francis has
touched on an issue that lays moral burdens on men, their businesses and
pocketbooks, and not primarily on women? The latter, of course, bear the main
burden of unwanted pregnancies. So the all-male clergy has found itself courageously
outspoken in defending human life, the "personhood" of fetuses (based on
medieval science), and in prohibiting contraception rationalized on a similarly
grounded morality of "natural law." So, papal pronouncements about such
questions are definitive, infallible, and universally binding (on women!).

Meanwhile, Laudato Si' challenges the patriarchal economic system of
capitalism, the coal and oil industries, Wall Street, and the one percent. Good
Catholic men are up to their necks in all of that. So are bishops and the
clergy in general.

So, the "pro-life" hierarchy hastens to
distance itself from their infallible leader. They do so even though Francis
claims to defend life in ways that far surpass concerns about sperm, eggs, zygotes,
fetuses, and stem cell research. He's defending the future of the planet and
the human race!

An example of such double-standard is
provided by the Lexington diocese's Discovering
Laudato Si': a Small Group Discussion Guide. It not only softens Pope
Francis' teaching about climate; it actually contradicts them. For instance:

* Pope Francis says that the
issue of human caused climate change has been settled by the vast majority of
climate scientists. The diocesan guide says "The debate will probably not be
resolved anytime soon."

* Pope Francis writes that addressing
the issue is "urgent" and must be confronted "here and now." The diocesan
booklet affirms that we are not called to "rush headlong into the fray. . . We
have been given time to reflect, to absorb, to be transformed." The Church's
slow response, it says, has precedent and purpose.

* Pope Francis spends the
preponderance of his encyclical addressing the structural causes of climate
chaos including the unbridled market, the effects of colonialism and
neo-colonialism, and even specific issues such as carbon trading. Yet the
diocesan booklet says that it is not yet time for "larger responses." In the
meantime, we are told, "Pope Francis has given us many little tasks we can
begin right away." Basically they are to reduce, recycle, reuse.

* Pope Francis celebrates
climate change activists and their organizations. He quotes approvingly from
their Earth Charter, recommends boycotts, and employs the language of "climate
debt" borrowed from those resisting mining operations in Latin America. Yet Discovering Laudato Si' discourages such
organizing. "Fortunately," it says, "the Pope is not calling us to ecological
crusade." Joining movements is worse
than doing nothing, it adds.

Why all this hesitancy and caution in
defense of LIFE writ large? Why the endless chatter by "pro-lifers" about moral obligations
primarily directed at women?

Might it be that a pope has finally said
something that threatens patriarchy?

As
they say, if men could get pregnant, abortion would be the eighth sacrament.

Mike Rivage-Seul is a liberation theologian and former Roman Catholic priest. Retired in 2014, he taught at Berea College in Kentucky for 40 years where he directed Berea's Peace and Social Justice Studies Program.Mike blogs (more...)

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